Primus | |
Title: | The One and the Prime |
---|---|
Home plane: | Mechanus |
Gender: | Genderless |
Alignment: | Lawful neutral |
Portfolio: | Law, modrons |
Domains: | Law, Protection, War |
Superior: | None |
Primus is the supreme ruler of modrons.
Contents
- 1 Description
- 2 Relationships
- 3 Realm
- 4 History
- 5 Bibliography
- 5.1 Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index
Description[edit | edit source]
Primus manifests as a gargantuan humanoid rising from a pool of pure energy, or as an androgynous human. In its gigantic form, its right hand is obscured by rainbows (a portal to Arcadia) and its left hand by darkness (a portal to Acheron).
Primus is aware of all modrons, because it is at the top of the hierarchy.
In fourth edition, the modrons are described as "cells" of the unknown being Primus.
Relationships[edit | edit source]
Primus is the supreme ruler of all modrons. The four secundus modrons report directly to Primus.
One Primus was killed by Tenebrous, the undead shade of the demon lord Orcus, using the Last Word, an utterance so powerful that it can destroy deities.
Chourst once visited Mechanus, although he barely survived the encounter; Primus itself showed up to deal with the slaad lord after he had worked enough mayhem and disorder on the orderly plane, and still seeks justice against Chourst.
Realm[edit | edit source]
Primus resides on the plane of Mechanus, in Regulus, the home of the modrons.
History[edit | edit source]
The history of Primus, like the history of the modrons, is possibly as old as the planes themselves. It may be that the modrons shaped the gears of of Mechanus in the Age before Ages, or that the gears of Mechanus shaped the modrons from the stuff of pure Law. It's suggested that the first modrons might have been proto-inevitables who learned to store energy in a central pool of energy, or that they were creatures of pure geometry that the plane of Mechanus slowly transformed into constructs. fourth edition suggests that Primus may have been a machine-like primordial.
For eons Primus existed at the hub of the central cog of Regulus, the supreme intelligence of the modron race. If by some calamity Primus was destroyed, a secundus modron was immediately promoted to replace it. However, in this time of transition, while the new Primus examined the state of the planes and its race, some chaos would enter the modron species, something that other races sometimes mistook for civil war.
For as long as records have been kept, Primus would call forth a Great Modron March every seventeen cycles of Regulus's largest gear (each cycle lasting 17 years by Oerth's reckoning). During the Great Modron March, "thousand upon thousands" of modrons would transverse every outer plane in the Great Wheel, trampling those who got in its way, with those few who survived the journey reporting to Primus on what they had witnessed. Some believe the March has has no purpose other than to temporarily bring a modron's vision of order to every plane, while others believed the purpose was simply to destroy as many modrons as possible and thereby renew the modron race.
In approximately 587 CY, however, an unprecedented disaster occurred: Primus was slain by the undead shade of a demon god, who secretly replaced Primus in the Infinity Web of the modrons, guiding the entire modron race without the knowledge of anyone else. Impersonating Primus, Tenebrous called for an early Modron March, disrupting the cycle that had previously been as regular as Mechanus's own clockwork gears. At Tenebrous's direction, the modrons scoured the planes for the long-lost Wand of Orcus, which Tenebrous needed to complete his resurrection and prevent the slow death he was experiencing as the possessor of the Last Word. When this Rogue March was completed, Tenebrous simply abandoned the modrons, leaving them to promote a new Primus in his place. The version of Primus that the Last Word had destroyed now exists as a vestige.
However, Tenebrous's fell taint had corrupted the modrons, and one of the secundi contested the promotion of one of its fellows. While normally promotion was instant and the egoless modrons accepted the arbitrary elevation of one of the four secundi as the proper order of things, Tenebrous's lingering influence inspired one to invoke an ancient rule that permitted Primus's successor to be chosen through a contest. The terms were simple: whichever secundus destroyed the most chaotic beings in a single week would win. While one traveled to Limbo to single-handedly massacre slaadi and similar creatures, the tainted secundus instead ordered its subordinates to destroy towns of gnome petitioners on the plane of Bytopia. At the end of the week, both secundi declared victory, with the one who had gone to Limbo objecting that the souls of Bytopia were not purely chaotic; nor should acting through subordinates have counted. The tainted one disagreed, and instead of accepting defeat it led nearly a million subordinate modrons on an exodus of the plane, bringing them to Acheron and promising to build its military might so that it could take Regulus by force. Though the promotion of the other secundus went on, the power of the modron race had been divided, even crippled.
The formians took advantage of the modrons' weakness, invading Regulus and taking control of outlying gears formerly under modron control. Thus far, however, the energy pool of the modrons has spawned new modrons for every one destroyed, resulting in a stalemate. The inevitables, too, expanded into modron territory in order to gain new resources for their kind, though recently (as of 597 CY) the new Primus has formed a truce with the inevitables, granting them space in Regulus and monodrone assistants in the inevitable factories in exchange for the ending of hostilities.
Bibliography[edit | edit source]
- Bilsland, Greg; Bruce R. Cordell (27-01-2011). "Creature Incarnations: Modrons". Dungeon #186. Wizards of the Coast. Available online (behind a paywall): [1]
- Bonny, Edward. "The Dragon's Bestiary: Lords of Chaos." Dragon #221. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1995.
- Cook, David "Zeb". Planescape Campaign Setting. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1994.
- Cook, Monte. Dead Gods. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1997.
- Cook, Monte, and Colin McComb. The Great Modron March. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 1997.
- Gygax, Gary. Monster Manual II. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1983.
- Jindra, Mark. "The Modrons." Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2001. Available online: [2]
- Marable, Ken. "Return of the Modrons." Dragon #354. Bellevue, WA: Paizo Publishing, 2007.
- Sernett, Matthew. "The Ties that Bind." Dragon #341. Bellevue, WA: Paizo Publishing, 2006.
Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index
The Index is based on previous work of Jason Zavoda through '08, and continued by numerous other fans over the years. The wiki page for the EGI has a list of sources, full product names, abbreviations, and a link to the full, downloadable index.
Topic | Type | Description | Product | Page/Card/Image |
---|---|---|---|---|
Imprimus (Smirtch the Gloam) | Non-player character | Lich, | Come Endless Darkness | 74, 378 |
Imprimus (Smirtch the Gloam) | Non-player character | Lich, | City of Hawks | 264, 265, 266, 267, 268, 269, 270, 271, 273, 297, 298, 301, 305, 306, 307, 314, 315, 316, 318, 322, 325, 326, 330, 333, 335, 337, 338, 339, 340, 341, 342, 343, 345, 348 |
Modron, Primus (The One, The Prime) | Non-player character | Monster Manual 2, AD&D 1e | 86, 91 | |
Modron, Primus (The One, The Prime) | Non-player character | Manual of the Planes, AD&D 1e | 85 | |
Modron, Primus (The One, The Prime) | Non-player character | OP1 Tales of the Outer Planes, AD&D 1e | 92 |